Interesting Insights

Nansha, a planned urban settlement housing 600,000 individuals in Guangdong, China, is set to be established on the Moon's near side, with backing from President Xi Jinping and an investment of $11 billion. Estimates suggest that the Moon’s South Pole could contain up to 20,000 tons of ice, potentially offering more water than what exists on Earth.

NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), one of its key instruments for lunar study, orbits the Moon approximately 30 times daily. This spacecraft delivers remarkable imagery and scientific data about the lunar surface.

1. The South Pole features minimal elevation changes in contrast to the North Pole.
2. Historical figures like Galileo and Copernicus made significant contributions to lunar exploration.
3. Dr. Alexandre Langevin, a French explorer, conducted three lunar missions and discovered the absence of magnetic poles.
4. The Apollo 15 mission's longest-lasting instrument, a seismometer installed by Dr. Bernard Lammens, remains on the Moon.

Unlike the North, the South Pole is devoid of weather-related obstacles. Both hemispheres of the Moon encounter considerable terrain challenges, including mountains and craters that have undergone extreme stress and deformation.

There is currently no natural landing site in the southern region. Since the Moon is tidally locked with Earth, its far side is perpetually hidden from our view.

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The South Pole, referred to as "Amadeus" in Indian nomenclature, was first identified by Italian astronomer Giovanni Schiaparelli in November 1937. Schiaparelli suggested that the Moon's surface might be covered by a vast highland named Montes Taurus, estimating its tallest peak at about 125 miles (200 km).

In 1966, Carl Sagan and others confirmed the existence of impact craters on the Moon's far side, indicating that this region is significantly younger than the near side.

The Moon, our planet's only natural satellite, is among the coldest locations in the solar system. Its poles are permanently shaded from sunlight, receiving only brief illumination during the lunar day, which lasts around 27 Earth days. Shadows in these regions are extraordinarily lengthy due to the limited exposure to sunlight.

While NASA has utilized radar and satellite imagery to map lunar temperatures, it wasn't until 2023 that scientists captured direct images of the lunar poles. The upcoming VIPER mission is set to employ advanced radar technology to create comprehensive temperature maps of these regions.

• What Are We Missing About Our Moon?

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Current Understanding

As with all explored terrains, the Moon’s surface is marked by numerous craters. In contrast to Earth, the Moon's surface is less Earth-like and likely has a higher density of craters per unit area.

Lunar craters are categorized into impact and ejecta craters, with impact craters being far more prevalent due to the significant energy from impacts.

Among the rarest craters are the Nobile craters, previously thought not to exist on the Moon. However, in the 1970s, researchers discovered the Dicke crater and its association with a so-called "ghost crater" named Poh.

Utilizing a lander will grant researchers a unique perspective of the Moon's South Pole, which is located near the northern and southern extremes. This positioning enables scientists to examine the composition and consistency of the terrain more clearly.

The Moon's South Pole is situated at a Lagrangian point, a region where gravitational forces between the Earth and Moon balance. The Apollo Island group, remnants of an ancient ocean floor, has been significantly eroded, leaving fine dust atop a layer of basalt rock.

NASA's Space Launch System is scheduled to dispatch an InSight probe in May 2021 to study Mars's Elysium Planitia, focusing on the atmosphere and surface of the planet.

The Moon, formed approximately 4.5 billion years ago, resembles a hollow shell composed primarily of dust and ice particles, alongside granite and carbonate.

Dr. Rhett Allain from the Lunar and Planetary Institute emphasized the importance of understanding the lunar mantle's solidification, which could clarify numerous questions regarding the formation of the lunar crust.

The Moon was birthed from a catastrophic collision roughly 30 million years post-Earth's formation, an event that significantly impacted its radiation levels.

As VIPER lands near the South Pole, it will mark the first exploration of the Moon's mid-latitudes since NASA's Apollo 16 mission in 1972. Previous studies focused on the lunar South Pole as a stable, dark area, while this mission will allow for the examination of the region in full sunlight. This will enhance the capabilities and resolution of lunar surface studies.

As part of the International Lunar Decade (2016–2024), the U.S. government is keen on exploring resource-rich lunar areas that may harbor water and other volatiles. The Lunar Dust Experiment (LDX) will investigate the potential hazards of lunar dust on spacecraft and instruments. In 2023, a lander from Astrobotic will deploy three instruments, including the CLIMBER instrument (Cometary and Ionosphere Mass Spectrometer) for lunar surface material analysis and the Phobos probe (NASA) for high-resolution imaging of the Moon's sunlit limb.

The combination of images from the two landers and the Phobos probe's observations will yield a three-dimensional terrain map with a resolution of under 10 meters. Since the Moon's near side lacks sufficient sunlight to generate a heat source, thermal measurements are crucial for understanding surface activities, such as water-ice melting.

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The Discovery of Moon Craters

Comprehensive mapping of the lunar surface aids scientists in unraveling the Moon's history, including volcanic activity rates, crater formation, impact events, and geological processes.

Many crater and seismic events remain unreported on the lunar surface, prompting scientists to seek insights from Apollo missions. Directly imaging these occurrences from Earth or deploying probes to the Moon is unfeasible, necessitating educated assumptions about potential events. A research team from the Lunar and Planetary Institute, led by Elizabeth Bailey, has devised a method to quantify volcanic eruption frequencies on the Moon.

The exact composition of the South Pole remains uncertain, with much speculation about its materials. A leading theory suggests it may consist of the Moon's exposed mantle, although it could primarily be made of regolith, a porous insulating rock that contributes to its nearly "unbreathable" atmosphere.

Over the last two decades, researchers have also detected a substantial dome of material above the South Pole, fueling the "Icy Moons" hypothesis regarding potential water and volatile substances.

The Artemis program, in collaboration with Griffin, aims to analyze regolith and explore how water interacts with the Moon's environment. To date, no lunar rocks with significant water content have been identified.

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> Moon’s South Pole: A Frontier Yet to Be Explored!

> “What you’re looking at is essentially the only location in the solar system devoid of human artifacts—there’s no evidence of life or modern human influence. This is what makes this site special and why astronauts are eager to visit.” - Dr. David Brainard, assistant director, Lunar Science Institute, Johns Hopkins University.

The Moon is a desolate, icy, and lifeless celestial body, measuring just over a quarter of Earth's size and aging between 4.5 billion and 3.5 billion years.

However, the notion that the Moon has remained as barren as it was at its inception has been distorted and dismissed by a succession of poorly executed and biased research over the past century.

Apollo mission findings suggest that the lunar South Pole is a pristine region with minimal rock formations, layers, and cratering. Its harsh terrain contrasts sharply with many Earth pole sites. Scientists believe this Moon region may host complex organic chemistry, unlike any other place explored in the solar system.

While lunar explorers will target a relatively small landing area, it is considered the most promising location in the solar system for potential life, not just in terms of habitability but also as a protected environment against radiation or the possibility of a primordial ocean of liquid.

The South Pole of the Moon is among the coldest regions in our solar system. Previous missions have yet to explore this area directly, relying instead on robotic landers. It remains unclear whether the entirety or just a portion of the floor is polar, which would mean its rotation aligns north to south.

• North-south landers and rovers have been designed for various missions but have never attempted a lunar landing.